The Favorite
by pickalily
Summary: Shiro can tell everyone that there are no favorites as much as he wants. They all know he's lying.


**A/N:** _My first Voltron fic. Please be gentle. Takes place during s1._

 **Word Count:** _1,822_

* * *

Training is important, sure, but so is resting and it seems like the paladins never get enough of the latter. Heck, even Keith is complaining about how much his body aches by the end of the week but Shiro won't hear of it. ("If we take a break now, we'll never defeat the Galra empire!" is always his reply to anyone who begs for a short break.)

"I vote that we rebel against Shiro," Lance whispers to Keith. "There are more of us than there are of him. If we catch him by surprise, we might be able to take him!"

"Dude, not a good idea," Hunk hisses. "We can barely take on the Galra and you think we should take on Shiro? I say we abort the plan."

"I second that. Since when have any of Lance's plans ever been a good idea?" Keith says.

Lance looks as if he's just about ready to murder the red paladin. "It's not like you can come up with a better idea," he mutters, sullen that both Hunk and Keith rejected his plan.

"Guys, what are you doing?" Shiro says, making them break up from their huddle. He's more annoyed than angry, used to Lance distracting the other paladins from training properly. Pidge is standing off to Shiro's side, snickering as the others get ready for another lecture. "I was going to tell you guys we could take a short break but since you guys are just busy chatting…"

"Break?" Lance blurts. He's more alert than he's been during training. "But you told us that we couldn't afford any breaks!"

"Pidge told me she was tired and I figured you guys were working hard enough so I decided that you guys deserved at least a short break. Well, I thought you guys were working hard before I saw you guys goofing off. Maybe only Pidge deserves a rest. Get back to work." He releases more drones for them to fight, ignoring their groans.

"So not fair," Lance mutters.

"Well, we always knew that Pidge was the favorite," Hunk says under his breath. He doesn't say it quietly enough though.

"There are no favorites," Shiro says, glaring. "Now focus."

The three share a look before getting back to training. Shiro could say that there were no favorites among the paladins but Pidge clearly gets her way whenever she wants to.

* * *

Lance is about to stroll past Keith's room but the sight of Pidge in Keith's jacket makes stop straight in his tracks and do a double take. She's looking in the mirror, doing poses and imitating Keith's demeanor. Knowing just how possessive Keith is of his stuff, Lance smirks and is about to call the red paladin's name when he turns to see the brooding loner sitting on the other side of the room, fiddling with his knife.

"Okay, what's going on?" Lance finally asks, not quite comprehending what he's seeing. "Why is Pidge wearing your jacket? Why are you just sitting there? Why aren't you yelling at her?"

"I asked him if I could try it on," Pidge answers, twirling. "Looks pretty cool, huh?"

Keith shrugs. "I decided it wouldn't hurt to let her try it on."

"You wouldn't let me try it on!" Lance exclaims. While he doesn't have an overwhelming desire to wear Keith's clothing, he's a tad offended that the guy wouldn't even allow him the small whim when it had popped into his head. The fact that Keith let Pidge try on his jacket on and not him just makes it sting even more.

"You'd stretch it out!" Keith says. He makes a face of distaste. "You're all weird and wiry."

"I am not!"

Pidge snickers. "Keith's kind of right. You're super tall and lanky, Lance."

"You know what, I'm leaving. I can't listen to you guys insult my perfect body," Lance grumbles, slamming the door to Keith's room shut behind him. He tries to ignore their laughter as he walks away.

* * *

Keith knocks on the door for what seems to be the hundredth time. He could have walked to the other side of the castle to the other bathroom but Lance did swear that he'd be out in "five minutes" and Keith figured waiting wouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately, five minutes for Lance actually means about an hour. Keith really only has himself to blame. Everyone knows that Lance is bad at math.

"Give me five minutes!" Lance calls from the other side of the door again.

"You said that an hour ago," Keith says, pounding on the door. "What are you even doing in there?"

"You can't ask a man his business! That's rude!"

"Forcing someone else to wait an hour to use the bathroom is rude too," Keith retorts.

"I was here first!"

Just then Pidge appears, eyes a little red from staring at her computer screen too long in the dark. "Hey, can I use the bathroom?" she mumbles, rubbing her eyes. "I really have to go."

Keith is about to open his mouth and tell Pidge that she'd be better off just heading off to the other bathroom but Lance pops his head out right then. A towel is wrapped around his head with another one around his waist. A thick cloud of steam smelling heavily of perfumed soap and shampoo wafts out of the door. "Did you say you needed the bathroom, Pidge?" he asks, looking at her and completely ignoring Keith.

"Yeah," she says. "I'd walk to the other one but it's a little far. Are you almost done in there?"

"Just give me a sec to clear out all of my stuff," Lance says. He pops back in and returns in a flash with bottles of his beauty products in his arms. He nods to the now empty bathroom, gesturing to let Pidge know the bathroom was now all hers. "Go ahead, Pidge."

Keith has to stare a little bit open-mouthed in shock before he speaks up. "I was waiting first!"

The two other paladins glance at him. "Just walk to the other one," Lance says dismissively, completely ignoring the fact that Keith had also been waiting for an hour in addition to being there first. "You can't make Pidge do it. She's tiny. Her bladder might explode!"

"I doubt it'd explode but it'd be a hassle to walk over there." She adjusts her glasses. "You can use it if you want, Keith. I don't really mind walking."

He wants to take it, he really does, but he'd feel bad forcing Pidge to walk to the other side of the castle and he hates the disapproving look that Lance has on right now (and he has a feeling that that look will be there for the rest of the day at the very least), so he just sighs and says, "No, it's fine. You can take it, Pidge."

"Cool. Thanks, Keith." She waves and shuts the door of the bathroom behind her.

Keith turns to start walking to the other bathroom. He's tired of waiting and at least walking will give him something to do.

"Why'd she thank you?" Lance mutters behind him. "I'm the one who gave up the bathroom for her."

"Shut it, Lance."

* * *

"You can't convince Hunk to let you eat some dinner early," Lance says to Shiro. "I know it smells good, but that guy likes his grub. Mealtimes are sacred to him. You can't eat a little bit of dinner before actual dinner. That's blasphemous!"

"I'm the leader of Voltron," Shiro says. "He can't deny orders from me."

Keith breathes in the delicious smells coming from the kitchen. "It's like he wants to torture us before we eat," Keith mutters darkly.

"It's not going to work," Lance warns, following Shiro who's already walking towards the kitchen.

"It's worth a shot," Shiro says as he pushes open the doors, ready to confront Hunk. "Hunk."

The chef turns around. A knife in his hand gleams, causing Lance to yelp and shield himself. "What's up?"

"We're hungry," Keith says, not even waiting for Shiro to speak. "You're cooking anyway. Couldn't we eat a little bit of what you're having before dinner?"

Hunk looks to Shiro who nods, confirming that that was the exact reason why they were there. Hunk sighs, looking a tad miffed. "Guys, I can't just feed you willy-nilly while I'm cooking. It'll ruin your appetites when dinnertime finally rolls around. Besides, I already made Pidge a snack so dinner's already behind schedule. If I make snacks for you guys too then dinner would be ages away!"

Lance gives the rest of them a pointed look as if to say "see!" but then the three of them rewind to an earlier part of Hunk's argument. "Did you say you made Pidge a snack?" Lance asks.

They all turn to Pidge who is sitting at the counter with a half-eaten cooking in hand. "Hey, guys," she says a little too smugly.

"You'll feed Pidge but not us?" Lance says, incredulous.

"Well, she asked earlier!" Hunk splutters.

"It can't have been that much earlier than us," Keith points out. "She's not even done eating yet."

"Yeah, Keith's right! If you can make her a snack, you can put aside some time to cook us something too!" Lance says.

"I can't make everyone food!" Hunk protests, setting his knife on the cutting board behind him. "You guys don't understand how important it is for me to cook meals without distractions!"

Shiro smirks. "You can just admit that Pidge is your favorite and that's why you'll make her a snack but not us."

At this statement the three paladins share a knowing look before looking at their leader.

Shiro blinks, a little bit confused as to why his two comrades were now turning on him. "What?"

"Pidge is _my_ favorite? What about yours?" Hunk says.

"Yeah!" Lance agrees. "You always let her take breaks during training but never us!"

Keith snorts at Lance. "As if you're one to talk about Shiro favoring Pidge. What about the time you immediately let Pidge have the bathroom when she said she needed it even though you had me waiting forever?"

"That's not a very fair example since Lance doesn't really like you in the first place," Hunk says.

Lance points at Hunk, nodding. "See, Hunk knows!"

"I think Keith's onto something," Shiro grumbles. "It's not like you give up the bathroom for me either."

"Okay, but what about Keith letting Pidge borrow his jacket?" Lance says quickly, hoping to switch the spotlight on someone else other than himself for once.

"You let Pidge borrow your jacket?" Shiro repeats, turning to Keith. "You never let anyone borrow your jacket."

"That's what I'm saying!" Lance says.

The four paladins dissolve into more accusations while Pidge just watches from where she sits, munching on her cookie all the while. It's not so bad, she thinks, being the favorite.

* * *

 **A/N:** _I totally understand, boys. Pidge is my favorite as well ~_

 _Just finished watching s3 yesterday so that was fun. Idk if you should expect anymore Voltron fics from me but if you're interested in more just comment and I'll see what I can do :)_


End file.
